


Bug Boy

by bluestle_gold



Series: Lake Justice Sleep-Away Camp [1]
Category: Blue Beetle (Comics), Booster Gold (Comics), DCU (Comics), Justice League International (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Gen, Lake Justice AU, everyone's like 10 in this, how to make friends and survive summer camp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 07:56:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7926838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluestle_gold/pseuds/bluestle_gold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He'd wanted to go to science camp.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bug Boy

**Author's Note:**

> First fic written in a very long time, first ever posted on ao3; go easy on me? I'm still learning how to correctly format everything on this site. Got any helpful hints (especially about spacing??)
> 
> This is the first part of a series I hope to continue where, instead of saving the world, everyone's just trying to survive summer camp. Other installments I have planned will star other characters.

He’d wanted to go to science camp.  
Every year, though, it was the same. He and his father’s arguing - “when I was your age I would’ve killed to play baseball all summer” “but I’m not you!” - his uncle Jarvis playing mediator, and the inevitability of him keeping the arguments going past baseball and science camp sign ups, leaving him no choice but to waste the summer cooped up in his dad’s apartment, watching nature documentaries about bugs and trees that he’d never see in downtown Hub City.  
This year, his father threw a curveball.  
Ted had gotten home from school, science camp flyer clutched his determined little fists, and found his father holding out the permission slip for him to see.  
Lake Justice Sleep-Away Camp.  
It had been Jarvis’s idea, apparently. Placate both parties by throwing Ted off into the wilderness with other children his age, where he’d be forced to play kickball and baseball and other sports and maybe get to learn hands on about all those trees and bugs he’d seen on TV every other summer.  
It wasn’t science camp - no robotics or circuits or chemicals - but it wasn’t baseball camp, either. He’d give his uncle points for that at least.  
The bus ride had been uncomfortable. He’d clutched his duffel bag to his chest as he quietly watched the other kids scream and shout about one thing or another. They mostly ignored him, throwing a football between the seats as the driver shouted at them to sit down. He paid more attention to the beetle crawling on the other side of the window.  
At least, he did until the football was suddenly flying in his direction accompanied by a panicked shout of “watch out!” from one of the other kids.  
He gasped, putting up his arms to block the ball instead of catch it, the pigskin thudding uselessly against his arms and falling into his lap.  
“Jeez, Allen, throw much?”  
“Hey, I run, I don’t throw.”  
“You gonna give that back, bug boy?”  
Ted almost didn’t realize someone was talking to him, but his attention was grabbed by a hand being waved in front of his face. Its owner grinned at him from the seat in front of his, golden hair falling messily over his eyes.  
“Huh?” He asked.  
“The ball,” the gold kid prompted. “It’s mine.”  
“Oh.” More one word answers. He handed the ball back. “Bug boy?”  
“Yeah.” The boy pointed to the beetle Ted had been watching. “Bug.” He pointed at Ted. “Boy.” He grinned, turning back around. “Thanks for my ball back!”  
After that, Ted tried to pay more attention to the other campers, deciding that a nickname was probably the first step toward friendship. If being “bug boy” meant he had a friend, he’d be bug boy.  
He followed the kids out of the bus when they got to the camp, looking around in awe of the trees that towered in much the same way that the buildings back home did.  
Except the scream of car horns was replaced by the chirping of birds, the smell of piss and trash for pine, and he was definitely not on his father’s couch anymore.  
He’d wanted to go to science camp, but this? This was just as good.  
—  
Ted took it back. This was not just as good as science camp would have been.  
It was probably better than baseball camp would have been, but he wouldn’t push his luck.  
The first day at camp had been great! He’d gotten his cabin assignment - sharing a bunk with some rude ginger boy, a kid who apparently thought he was some sort of football star at ten years old, and Max, who seemed to be the most normal boy he’d met so far - and played some get-to-know-you ice breakers with the other campers until dinner time. Everyone at the camp seemed nice enough, but most people seemed nice at first glance.  
But the next morning, after breakfast, was when he’d realized that kids here in the woods were just as cruel as they were back home.  
The self-titled football star - Booster, he’d said, but really? Booster? - had pulled him toward the weed speckled baseball diamond after the other kids, refusing to listen to his protests.  
“I don’t play sports!”  
“Who said anything about sports? This is kickball!”  
“I’m pretty sure if there’s a ball involved, it’s a sport…”  
He’d shuffled into the line up along with Booster, wedging himself between the blonde boy and Max, as he listened to the three kids at the front argue over who got to be team captains.  
“You don’t know the first thing about being a captain!”  
“Oh, and you do?”  
“More than you! It’s all about strategy-”  
“There’s no strategy in kickball!”  
“Not the way you play it in Kansas, maybe-”  
“Both of you could captain the same team and my team would still win!”  
“Girls can’t be team captain-”  
“And why not?”  
Ted tuned them out, deciding that his time was better spent helping Booster fill their ginger cabin-mate’s sweatshirt hood with rocks.  
Eventually, team captains were chosen, and Ted was starting to regret all of the sausage links he’d shoved down his throat at breakfast.  
One by one, kids were chosen to fill the rosters, and the longer he stood waiting, the more he realized the inevitable.  
Neither team saw any tactical advantage to having the chubby bug boy on their team.  
He laughed it off, he and Booster joking that they’d be the cheerleaders with the girls who hadn’t wanted to play, but Booster had been chosen pretty early on and he had a pretty strong kick.  
Ted had made sure to stick around long enough to make sure his new friend was too wrapped up in the game to notice he was gone.  
He wandered down to the lake, not the beach, where some other campers were having swimming lessons, but to one of the sides where the lake leaked over into gooey marshlands, and found himself a decently dry rock close enough to the lake that he could throw stones and little twigs into the water without accidentally falling in.  
Eventually he ran out of rocks in easy reach and crawled closer to the lake’s edge, trying to count how many bugs he could find in the tall grass.  
“You know, you’re really not supposed to be by the water without a buddy.”  
Ted had screamed, startled, and would’ve fallen into the lake if a hand hadn’t grabbed his t-shirt and pulled him backwards.  
“Whoa! Didn’t mean to scare you.”  
The first thing he noticed was the blue antenna, and that really didn’t help him calm down. Still stunned, it took him a moment to notice that the antenna were attached to a beat up baseball cap, which was attached to the head of an older boy wearing a Lake Justice counselor shirt.  
Great. It was only his second day at camp and he was already not picked for kickball and getting in trouble. He’d rather be back at home on the couch…  
His worry must have been printed on his face, because the counselor was quick to add, “Hey, you’re not in trouble. I’ll be your buddy if you wanna stay here.”  
Ted blinked. No questions as to why he wasn’t playing kickball, why he didn’t have a buddy in the first place-  
“Your hat is weird.”  
Smooth, Kord. Make fun of the guy who just offered to give you an out from kickball.  
“Is it?” The older boy reached up, toying with the antenna. “Yeah, I guess it is, but it’s an important hat. My robotics team back home wears them.”  
Robotics? His eyes widened. "You like robots?”  
“Sure do.” The kid grinned. “I mean, not as much as I like ancient civilizations, but there’s gotta be a way to combine that with robots, right?”  
“Ancient robots,” Ted assured very matter-of-factly. “I bet that’s a thing.”  
The counselor laughed, nodding. “Definitely, kid-”  
“Ted,” he corrected, holding out his hand. “I’m Ted.”  
“Dan,” the counselor introduced, taking his hand in a proper handshake. He let Ted’s hand drop as he glanced toward the lake shoreline, where Ted had been digging for insects. “So… what’re you doing down here anyway?”  
—  
The rest of the summer went something like this:  
Ted woke up to someone blaring a horn and Booster shaking the bunk to try and make Guy fall off the top. They’d go to breakfast, where he and his cabin-mates would sit at one end of the long table, listen to the shouts and laughter of the other kids and cause mayhem with Booster until someone - usually Max or the ditzy rich kid - yelled at them to knock it off. As soon as possible, he’d disappear from Booster’s side when the other boy joined in on some game or another and wander off to wherever Dan was assigned. Sometimes it’d be lame, like cleaning up the arts and crafts cabin, but other times he’d get to do things that were pretty cool, watch the older campers on the archery range. No matter what, though, he’d get to talk with Dan, which made all the glitter permanently stuck his hair worth it. They’d talk about anything, from ancient Pharaohs to comic books to scientific theories, Dan teaching Ted what he could and Ted constantly surprising the older boy with what he already knew.  
It made the summer roll by way too fast, in Ted’s mind, and soon enough, he was packing his duffel and heading back toward the bus at the front gate.  
He and Booster were giggling about something, some joke they’d forget a minute later, when he noticed Dan standing with the other counselors.  
“Save me a seat,” he said to Booster, shoving his duffel into the other boy’s arms, before hurrying over to his friend. “Dan!”  
“Hey, bug boy.” Dan knelt down to Ted’s height, hugging the kid to him as Ted threw his arms around his neck. “All packed?”  
He nodded, pulling away from the hug with a grin. “I can’t wait for next summer!” He babbled. “Forget science camp, this was so much cooler! And next summer you’ll have gone to school and you can tell me all about ancient robots and-”  
“About that…”  
Ted paused in his chattering, eyes wide as he stared up at his friend. His friend who wouldn’t meet his eyes and was rubbing at the back of his head through his weird hat.  
“Ted, buddy, I’m not gonna be here next summer.”  
A beat. “What?”  
Dan winced at the whispered question. “This was my last summer,” he explained. “Next year, I’ll hopefully be on a dig somewhere, in an internship…”  
Ted wasn’t listening. Beyond “I’m not gonna be here”, he didn’t really care. “You have to be here!” He insisted, gripping at Dan’s shirt as big, gross tears welled up in his eyes. “If you’re not here then camp isn’t gonna be fun and if I don’t come to camp I’ll have to play baseball all summer and I can’t play baseball at all-!”  
“Why won’t camp he fun without me?”  
“‘Cause you’re my friend-!”  
“What about your other friends?”  
“Huh?” What other friends?  
“What about the other kids?”  
“They’re not my friends.” Not like Dan was. Dan didn’t care if he didn’t play ball or couldn’t run fast.  
“Really?” Dan raised an eyebrow, having the gall to grin as Ted pouted. “What about Booster?”  
“What about him?”  
“Well, he’s your friend, right?”  
He shrugged. Maybe. The kid was annoying sometimes but he was also kind of cool and he thought Ted’s jokes were funny…  
“But you’re my friend too,” he insisted. “And making more friends is hard!”  
“Sometimes making friends is hard,” Dan agreed. “But look at it this way; this was your first summer and you already made two friends. Next year, you’ll make two more, and so on. Soon you’ll have a lot of friends. But you gotta promise me something.”  
“Yeah?” Ted frowned, wary as he decided Dan’s logic on making friends was sound. “What’s that?”  
Suddenly, the sun wasn’t as bright and there was an unfamiliar bulk on top of his head. In a panic, he reached up, his fingers wrapping around a pair of antenna that had appeared from his temples.  
“Take good care of this for me?” Dan asked, patting Ted’s head through the baseball cap. “You’re more of a bug lover than me.”  
Ted’s eyes widened and he nodded, holding tighter to the hat as if it would blow away. “I promise,” he vowed, his words almost lost under the honking of the bus behind him.  
Dan grinned, squeezing Ted’s shoulders before getting to his feet. “Good luck, bug boy.”  
Ted gave him a watery smile in return before running to catch the bus, sliding into the seat next to Booster. His hands were still gripping the sides of the cap and his cheeks were red with exertion from his sprinting.  
The blond boy - his friend - eyed him as he sat down, silent until the bus began to move.  
“Dude.”  
“Hm?”  
“That hat is weird.”  
“So?”  
He shook his head, grinning as he reached up to flick one of the antenna. “So nothing. It suits you.”  
Ted couldn’t help but laugh. “So I’m weird?”  
“Your words not mine,” Booster replied, waving a hand. “Anyway, much more important: I saw J'onn smuggle a bunch of cookies from the mess hall and you’ve gotta help me get them-”  
He’d wanted to go to science camp, he remembered that. But with his friend here next to him on a crowded bus of screaming kids, he couldn’t think of a better way to spend his summers.

**Author's Note:**

> Got any suggestions? Headcanons? Wanna talk about this AU's potential (or lack thereof)?  
> Come say hi on tumblr: bluestle-gold.tumblr.com/


End file.
